Premature babies experience feelings of pain rather than simply displaying reflex reactions, a study says. Experts have never been sure how a premature baby responds to pain, the Journal of Neuroscience reported.

But a team from University College London found that they do feel pain after analysing brain scans taken when blood samples were being drawn.

They hope the findings will lead to more formal plans for managing pain in premature babies.

Lead researcher Professor Maria Fitzgerald said: "We have shown for the first time that the information about pain reaches the brain in premature babies.

"Beforehand, although we could assume it, we did not know for sure that these babies could feel pain.

"These babies' brains are so immature that it was difficult to genuinely know that the pain was going to their brain."

Previous research had shown that premature babies are capable of displaying behavioural, physiological and metabolic signs of pain and distress.

However, the measures were all indirect and could be dismissed as bodily reflex reactions, rather than measures of true pain experience.

Researchers conducted brain scans on 18 babies in the neonatal unit at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Obstetric Hospital in central London.

Conception

The scientists registered the brain activity in the babies - aged between 25 and 45 weeks from conception - before, during and after nurses performed blood tests using a heel lance.

The results showed a surge of blood and oxygen in the sensory area of their brains, meaning the pain was processed in the higher levels of the brain, the team said.

The team claimed the implications of the findings were clear, saying there was a potential for pain experience to influence brain development.

Each baby requiring intensive care is subjected to an average of 14 procedures per day, many of which are considered by clinical staff to be painful, such as heel lancing for blood tests and inserting chest tubes.

Premature baby charity Bliss said: "These findings show that premature babies experience 'true' pain and confirm the need for a protocol for pain for premature babies.

"Only 20% of neonatal units in the UK regularly use a pain tool to assess chronic pain.

"We strongly believe there is no justification for babies to be in pain and that more attention should be paid to providing comfort and relief when painful procedures are undertaken whilst they are in neonatal care."

Maybe I am cynical, but it seemed to me the article was implying it would have been more humane to abort these babies rather than have them suffer up to 14 procedures a day.

I don't know...I've always assumed that the abortion advocates who blather on about their "right to control their bodies" are able to adjust their thinking so that the babies that are murdered are just abstract things...inert non-beings with no soul, no brain and no rights themselves...either that or they truly have no conscience

This article again makes the abortionists confront the lies they tell themselves

It would be more humane, if the babies have such severe defects that this is all they will ever experience in "life", and if done with proper anesthesia. There are babies born after being diagnosed fairly early in the pregnancy as having defects which are incompatible with survival beyond infancy, but whose parents bring them into the world anyway, where they die slowly over the course of weeks or months or even a couple of years, never leaving the hospital and in constant fear and pain because of the endless medical procedures. In some cases, these parents have even sued to try to force medical personnel to continue torturing the poor little creature, instead of letting it go naturally.

Better pain management is needed, but some of these babies are so fragile that their bodies cannot handle the drugs for pain. It takes a certain level of maturity of major organs to process these drugs, and babies who are very premature often don't have that level of maturity, because these functions are still supposed be performed by the mother's organs, via the placenta.

There are babies born after being diagnosed fairly early in the pregnancy as having defects which are incompatible with survival beyond infancy, but whose parents bring them into the world anyway, where they die slowly over the course of weeks or months or even a couple of years, never leaving the hospital and in constant fear and pain because of the endless medical procedures.

When my wife's cousin was pregnant, the doctors told her early on that her daughter would be born profoundly mentally retarded and disabled...that was 7 years ago...

Fortunately, my wife's cousin put her faith in G-d to do what He would...and today her daugther is a happy, healthy, beautiful 6 year old

My cousin had a similar experience. She was very nervous about her pregnancy because she had been born with a severe cleft palate. She's undergone, numerous surgeries to repair it. The doctors did amniocentesis with both her pregnancies. Her daughter was fine. But her son's came back with extremely bad results. I can't remember what my aunt, who is a nurse, called it. It's wasn't Down's Syndrome, but it did have to do with an extra chromosome. I believe it was the sixteenth chromosome. My aunt said that this particular defect caused horrible deformation, and often death. Anyhow, my cousin gave birth to a perfectly healthy boy. He's 18 now, and about to start college on a full academic scholarship.

12
posted on 04/12/2006 8:40:02 AM PDT
by Conservative Texan Mom
(Some people say I'm stubborn, when it's usually just that I'm right.)

With the number of abortions declining, Planned Parenthood clinics are hurting for business. Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, the San Francisco branch of the organization has hit on a new marketing scheme. Anyone who has an abortion at one of the eight PPGG centers before April 30, 2006, will be entered in a drawing to win an iPod. In addition, any customer who refers a friend who subsequently gets an abortion will be given a pair of movie tickets.

"We're dying here," said Etta Young, PPA spokeswoman. "We needed to come up with something that could boost volume. Failure would mean the demise of our operation. iPods are hip. Every teen loves movies. It was a 'no brainer.'"

Other marketing ideas in the works include "buy one abortion, get a second at half-price," a "frequent aborter" program that earns free stays in participating hotels and/or free airline tickets, and a prize for the best 25-words-or-less essay on "what I liked best about my abortion" from satisfied customers.

In related news, the pro-abortion lobby launched its strongest argument yet in a confrontation with pro-life advocates on a Canadian campus. The pro-life display depicts large, bloody images of abortion and historical genocide, comparing society's sanction of the killing of unborn children to past government-sanctioned slaughter during the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide. In response, the pro-abortion demonstrators unfurled a banner saying "your campaign stinks." Seasoned observers of the debate on abortion say they cannot recall a more incisive or pertinent statement on behalf of abortion rights ever having been made. "The argument is brilliantly simple and logically unassailable," said Dr. Art Slade, professor of Philosophy at the University of Calgary.

Of course. Since this threatens radical-leftist dogma of "freely terminate life of conceived offspring up to and after birth", this will be suppressed in the leftist-oriented mainstream media, as all other truth.

When I was pregnant with my son 9 years ago in a very high risk pregnancy, my dr told me that the ultrasound showed a severe cleft lip and palate and recommended "termination". I declined. (And not too politely either!) My husband and I researched the problem carefully so we'd be prepared. All we knew was that we loved our son and would accept him in whatever condition God chose to give him to us in.

The ultrasound the day before he was born continued to show the cleft. When he was born in an emergency c-section (unrelated to the cleft-lip and palate) my OB blurted out "He's perfect". (She didn't understand that he was perfect to us regardless of birth defects.)

To this day we don't know what those ultrasounds showed. All I know is that there was no cleft lip or palate. We had him checked thoroughly to make sure that there wasn't some abnormality that wasn't visible. He was premature, needed a ventilator for 10 days, but otherwise everything turned out fine.

Today he's rowdy, rambunctious 8 year old, on the Honor Roll at school, and an absolutely joy in my life.

My cousin underwent a second amniocentesis, and it confirmed the first result. She still had a perfect baby boy.

Congrats to you! I bet you were so relieved. I know you would have loved him no matter though.

My cousin had it pretty rough growing up because she was subjected to a lot of ridicule. She's quite an incredible woman though. Funny as can be, wee adjusted, and extremely intelligent. There is so much more to life than appearances.

17
posted on 04/12/2006 11:13:44 AM PDT
by Conservative Texan Mom
(Some people say I'm stubborn, when it's usually just that I'm right.)

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